Mile End Blog

Blog - Routesetting

Special Delivery…

Its been a busy few weeks for the Setting Team..

Friday 14th saw the sides of the Secret Garden come down and 22 new blocs on Trackside. Its always great to watch people try these blocs. There are so many different foot options, meaning everyones beta is different. Next up on Tuesday was the Peggy Day. Throwing laps is the name of the game here, always popular with beginners and seasoned vets alike, a great area for warming up, sideways crimping and everything in between.

On Wednesday we decided to get a head start on Thursdays Monkey Room set and take the big volume off the roof. Sheridan came up with a great idea to build a mini scaffold tower underneath it so we could literally unscrew it and drop it onto a platform. It worked a treat and gave us a massive head start for the next days setting. It also gave us a massive roof to play with, meaning everything got a bit steeper and the blocs were a bit harder. Its a great challenge and achievement for for people to try and make it it across the roof. I remember spending days trying to get across it when i first started climbing at Mile End.

On Monday we recieved our first batch of new holds for the new areas being built outside. Fresh from France courtesy of Volx, the holds are amazing and we cant wait to start setting with them. Modelled on actual holds from classic boulder problems and areas in Fontainbleau, these holds were used in the finals of Blocfest . They looked sick and climbed even better- look out for the 'Le Coeur' hold, taken from the classic 7a problem in sector Elephant.

This Week The Playground gets a full reset on Thursday and the Yellow Lead wall gets a full re-set on Friday!

Posted by Alex Lemel on 25th June 2013

Blog - Routesetting

Going Caving…

Yesterday Mike and Andy re-set The Cave. It looks great in there, and is always popular with beginners and kids. I think this due to the lower nature of the walls and the fact that there is a lot of bridging, meaning the problems always tend to lend themselves to being slightly easier. That being said, there is always a spicy pink/black thrown in for good measure.

Last week (Thursday) me and Mike re-set the Red/Blue Overhang. We used some of the new circuit holds and they worked a treat. This can sometimes be a slightly frustrating area to set as the arêtes are close together, meaning you can always throw a heel, toe or hand to an arête. However the problems turned out great and we hope you enjoy them.

Planned for the rest of the week is the Trackside on Friday, coinciding with the removal of the sides of the Secret Garden walls. This should give some much needed cooler temps out there. The building of the new slab area is progressing well and looks wicked. The setters cant wait to get on there with some fresh grips and set some king lines!

Next week we are re-setting the Peggy Day on Tuesday and the Monkey Room on Thursday and Friday. Time for the big volume to come off the roof in The Monkey Room which will be a nice change back to its original steepness.